Forex Market Hours
Live open/closed status for Sydney, Tokyo, London, and New York forex sessions. Check overlap windows, UTC hours, and daylight saving shifts.
Forex Market Session Hours
Forex has no official opening hours for its sessions. The four sessions are a convention based on when the banks in each centre are at their desks. This page uses 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM local time for London, New York and Sydney and 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM for Tokyo, the same hours the live clock above uses.
Because the four centres change their clocks on different dates, the UTC hours move during the year. This table is worked out from the time zone database for 2026:
| 2026 dates | Sydney | Tokyo | London | New York | London and New York |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 1 to Mar 7 | 21:00 to 06:00 | 00:00 to 09:00 | 08:00 to 17:00 | 13:00 to 22:00 | 13:00 to 17:00 (4 h) |
| Mar 8 to Mar 28 | 21:00 to 06:00 | 00:00 to 09:00 | 08:00 to 17:00 | 12:00 to 21:00 | 12:00 to 17:00 (5 h) |
| Mar 29 to Apr 4 | 21:00 to 06:00 | 00:00 to 09:00 | 07:00 to 16:00 | 12:00 to 21:00 | 12:00 to 16:00 (4 h) |
| Apr 5 to Oct 3 | 22:00 to 07:00 | 00:00 to 09:00 | 07:00 to 16:00 | 12:00 to 21:00 | 12:00 to 16:00 (4 h) |
| Oct 4 to Oct 24 | 21:00 to 06:00 | 00:00 to 09:00 | 07:00 to 16:00 | 12:00 to 21:00 | 12:00 to 16:00 (4 h) |
| Oct 25 to Oct 31 | 21:00 to 06:00 | 00:00 to 09:00 | 08:00 to 17:00 | 12:00 to 21:00 | 12:00 to 17:00 (5 h) |
| Nov 1 to Dec 31 | 21:00 to 06:00 | 00:00 to 09:00 | 08:00 to 17:00 | 13:00 to 22:00 | 13:00 to 17:00 (4 h) |
All times are UTC. Sydney's session crosses midnight and ends on the next UTC day. The US changes its clocks on March 8 and November 1, the UK and EU on March 29 and October 25, and Sydney on April 5 and October 4. Tokyo never changes.
The Overlap Windows: Where Volume Spikes
An overlap is when two centres are open at the same time. The London and New York overlap is the one traders watch, because London is the largest forex centre and New York the second. The last column of the table above shows its UTC hours for each part of 2026.
New York 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM · Los Angeles 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM · India 17:30 to 21:30 in summer and 18:30 to 22:30 in winter. Lasts 4 hours, or 5 hours in the mismatch weeks.
London desks are still running while New York opens, so this is typically the busiest window for EUR/USD and GBP/USD, and many scheduled US data releases land in it. For a few weeks each spring and autumn the US is on summer time while the UK is on winter time (March 8 to 28 and October 25 to 31 in 2026). The window then runs 12:00 to 17:00 UTC, which is 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM in New York, and lasts 5 hours.
Tokyo 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, or to 4:00 PM from April 5 to October 3 · Sydney 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM on AEDT, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on AEST. Lasts 6 to 7 hours.
Quieter than the London and New York overlap. Both desks are active, which makes it the main overlap for Asia-Pacific pairs such as AUD/JPY and NZD/JPY.
London 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM GMT, or 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM BST · Tokyo 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM in winter, 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM in summer. Lasts 1 to 2 hours.
Short, but sometimes volatile. European traders opening positions can move JPY pairs while Asian liquidity thins out. The window ends when Tokyo closes at 09:00 UTC, and starts an hour earlier in UTC when London is on summer time.
What Is the Forex Market?
The foreign exchange market has no central exchange. It is a decentralized network of banks, brokers and institutions, and trading follows the sun from one financial centre to the next. When one closes, another is already open.
"24-hour market" is accurate but misleading, because not every hour is equal. Liquidity, meaning how easily you can trade without moving the price, drops when only one session is active. Spreads widen and price action slows. Many retail traders open positions outside peak hours and wonder why their fills are poor.
The week is not continuous. Most retail brokers open on Sunday at about 5:00 PM New York time and close on Friday at 5:00 PM New York time, which is 22:00 UTC in winter and 21:00 UTC in summer. Exact hours vary by broker, and there is no forex trading on Saturday.
📊 The BIS Triennial Survey put average global FX turnover at $9.6 trillion per day in April 2025. The UK, the US, Singapore and Hong Kong together handled 75% of it, and the UK alone about 38%. Bank for International Settlements, September 30, 2025
That is why the "Asian session" is not really only Tokyo. Singapore and Hong Kong are among the four largest centres, ahead of Tokyo, and trade in similar hours. Sydney is on the list because it is the first of the four to open the week.
Each Session, Explained
London Session: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM local
London handles about 38% of global FX turnover, more than any other location, per the BIS 2025 Triennial Survey.
European pairs such as EUR/USD, GBP/USD and EUR/GBP are centred on these hours, because European banks and institutions are at their desks.
In UTC the session is 08:00 to 17:00 in winter (GMT) and 07:00 to 16:00 in summer (BST), so it shifts when the UK changes its clocks on the last Sundays of March and October.
New York Session: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM local
New York opens at 13:00 UTC in winter (8:00 AM EST) and 12:00 UTC in summer (8:00 AM EDT). The local open stays at 8:00 AM, but the UTC time moves with US daylight saving.
USD pairs such as EUR/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF and GBP/USD are central here. Scheduled US releases such as the jobs report and CPI come out at 8:30 AM Eastern, inside the overlap with London, and the Federal Reserve's rate decisions are announced at 2:00 PM Eastern, after London has closed.
Once London closes, New York trades on its own until its close, usually with lighter activity than during the overlap.
Tokyo Session: 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM local
Tokyo is when Japanese banks and institutions trade yen pairs such as USD/JPY, EUR/JPY and GBP/JPY. The session is 00:00 to 09:00 UTC all year, because Japan does not change its clocks.
Bank of Japan decisions and Japanese economic data move this window. Pairs such as EUR/USD and GBP/USD are usually quieter during Tokyo hours, unless there is European or US news.
Sydney Session: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM local
Sydney is the first session of the trading week. Volume is the lightest, but it is not dead: AUD/USD, NZD/USD and AUD/JPY are the pairs that move.
The session crosses midnight UTC, which trips up traders counting hours. Sydney is on AEDT (UTC+11) from October 4 to April 5 and on AEST (UTC+10) the rest of the year, so the session is 21:00 to 06:00 UTC from October 4 to April 4 and 22:00 to 07:00 UTC from April 5 to October 3. The IANA zone Australia/Sydney handles this automatically.
What to Do Next
Check the live clock at the top of this page for today's status, and use the table for the dates around a clock change, when the standard hours are an hour out. To turn a UTC session time into your own time, set the date in the time zone converter, or use the 24-hour tables for UTC to EST, UTC to PST and UTC to IST. The 2026 clock-change dates for each country are on the daylight saving time 2026 page. Your broker's own market hours calendar is the final word on when you can trade.